Vasily Grossman & Beethoven

[William Ryan]

This caught my attention and aroused my curiosity because my teenage 
daughter is collecting Irish folksongs (seeking her roots I suppose). It 
should have been easy to find  - and wasn't, so I browsed. The main 
information on this subject appears to be  John Hennig, "Beethoven and 
Ireland", The Irish Monthly, Vol. 75, No. 890 (Aug., 1947), pp. 332-338 
and Alice Anderson Hufstader, "Beethoven's "Irische Lieder": Sources and 
Problems", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Jul., 1959), pp. 343-360.

Opinions on the number of "Irish" songs by Beethoven vary from 57 to 72, 
and sometimes they get confused with his Scottish songs. They were 
commissioned by George Thomson, an Edinburgh publisher, who supplied 
Beethoven with the melodies, obtained from a Dr Latham in Cork, some of 
which were traditional and some contemporary popular and most were sent 
without words. The missing "lyrics" were mostly supplied by Thomson who 
commissioned them from a variety of usually minor English and Scottish 
versifiers - i.e. they were not authentic Irish folksongs.

To judge from the titles of the Irische Lieder which I can find, the 
"Irlandskaia zastol'naia" lyric seems not to be one of them , or even 
particularly Irish -  Betsy and Jenny (Jeannie?) don't sound very Irish, 
and all that ale, grog and punch sound more like a composed English 
drinking song than a folksong. And since when has death been personified 
as "milady"?

The "Irlandskaia zastol'naia"seems to have been a popular concert piece 
in Russia, with several recordings by well-known singers - and none of 
them gives the original title in their website descriptions. I had 
thought originally that Tom Moore might have Beethoven's source, but he 
wasn't because he was already preparing his Irish Melodies for another 
publisher. Even so half of Beethoven's melodies are taken from the same 
source as Moore's. As I said, this ought be easy with the resources of 
the Web, but it isn't. I would be very glad to hear the full story if 
anyone knows it, as I am sure would Robert.

Will

On 28/07/2011 08:32, Simon Beattie wrote:
> Is it one of the "Irische Lieder", perhaps?  Beethoven set quite a few.
>
> Simon
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic&  East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Alexandra Smith
> Sent: 27 July 2011 23:14
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Vasily Grossman&  Beethoven
>
> Dear Robert,
>
> The Russian text of the song you are looking for is attached below.
> It's called in Russian "Irlanskaia zastol'naia". You can listen to it
> here:
> http://onlinemusic.org.ua/song/351414/L-V_Bethoven-Irlandskaya_zastolnaya_isp_E_Hil.html
>
>
>
>
>    Артур Эйзен — Ирландская застольная (Бетховен)
>
>
> За окнами шумит метель
> Роями белых пчел
> Друзья!
> Запеним добрый эль
> Поставим грог на стол!
>
> Пусть девушки любовь дарят,
> Боль сердца утоля.
> Пусть светится любимый взгляд
> Огнями хрусталя.
>
> Из ночи и морозных вьюг
> Кто в дверь стучится к нам?
> И отчего немой испуг
> На бледных лицах там?
>
> Миледи смерть, мы просим вас
> За дверью обождать
> Нам Бетси будет петь сейчас,
> А Дженни танцевать.
>
> Что ж потемнели свечи вдруг?
> Зажгите пунш скорей
> И девушки, скорее в круг
> И песни - веселей!
>
> Звени бокалом, жизнь моя!
> Гори любовь и хмель!
> Нет, только б не сейчас, друзья
> В морозную постель!
>
> За окнами шумит метель
> Роями белых пчел
> Друзья!
> Запеним добрый эль
> Поставим грог на стол!
>
> Пусть девушки любовь дарят,
> Боль сердца утоля.
> Пусть светится любимый взгляд
> Огнями хрусталя.
>
> All best,
> Sasha Smith
>

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